Senate Bill S2493

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S2493

SPONSOR: GOUNARDES
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to the
community air monitoring program

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To mandate that the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)
produce an addendum to their community air monitoring study on the role
that the Department's permitting of air facilities plays in contributing
to direct and indirect sources of air pollution

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one of the bill adds a new subdivision five to section 75-0115
of the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) to provide that DEC include
an addendum to their CLCPA-mandated community air monitoring study,
which was due June 2024, within one year of the date of the bill sign-
ing. The addendum shall include an examination of the role that DEC
              

plays in contributing to air pollution in disadvantaged communities
through their permitting of warehouses such as Title V facilities.

This section also adds a new subdivision 6 to provide that DEC shall
release a public listing and map of all last mile warehouses receiving
air permits and certifications in conjunction with the addendum to the
study described in subdivision five.

Section three sets the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Section 75-0115 in Article 75 of the Environmental Conservation Law,
established by landmark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act
(CLCPA) of 2019, mandated that NYS DEC undergo a community air monitor-
ing program to study and report on strategies to reduce air pollution in
disadvantaged communities "affected by a high cumulative exposure
burden" (ECL § 75-0115(3)). As of this writing, the study has consisted
of "a mobile monitoring fleet of air sensor-equipped, low-emissions
vehicles...driven on public roads...at least 20 times across different
seasons, different days of the week, and different times of the day...
to collect block-level air pollution data to help identify sources
contributing to disproportionate air pollution burdens and develop stra-
tegies to reduce air pollution within these communities, including
greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change" according to
the Department. After collecting data on a long list of pollutants which
includes fine particulate matter, black carbon, nitric oxide, nitrogen
dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, ozone, ethane,
methane, carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gases, DEC will be
required to publish a report on potential pollutant reduction strategies
in June 2024.

Missing from this section of ECL, however, is the requirement for DEC to
look internally at the role that the Department plays in contributing to
air pollution in overburdened communities through its permitting of air
facilities. DEC's Division of Air Resources (DAR) currently regulates a
range of commercial and industrial facilities that both directly
pollute, such as by burning fuel or releasing airborne chemicals from
facility processes or operations, and indirectly attract large sources
of pollution such as truck traffic by the nature of their operations.
DAR's permitting categories range from Air Title V, reserved for the
largest facilities considered to be "major sources" of pollution subject
to Title V of the Federal Clean Act, to Air State Facility Permits,
applying to medium-sized commercial or industrial sites that may have
agreed to emission capping, to Air Facility Registrations, required for
smaller operations like dry cleaners or auto body shops. Up until the
passage of the CLCPA, however, DEC was never required to consider the
role that any of these facilities played in attracting indirect sources
of pollution such as truck traffic as a result of their commercial or
industrial activities.

Environmental justice communities such as Red Hook and Sunset Park in
Brooklyn have paid the price for the short-sightedness of DAR's permit-
ting criteria, where five e-commerce warehouses, totaling hundreds of
thousands of square feet, are slated to come online in the near future.
Driven largely by a pandemic-fueled surge in demand for overnight deliv-
eries, these "last mile" warehouses have resulted in an enormous barrage
of truck traffic in "as-of-right" manufacturing zones throughout New
York City where new construction proliferates without the need for an
environmental review process or community buy-in. According to the Rens-
selaer Polytechnic Institute's Center for Excellence for Sustainable
Urban Freight Systems, over 2.3 million packages are currently delivered
to New Yorkers every day - up from an average of 1.8 million pre-pandem-
ic. The New York City Department of Transportation, meanwhile, predicts
that freight traffic will continue to grow 67% between 2012 and 2045.

Last mile warehouses in the overnight delivery age have a much larger
geographic footprint than traditional warehouses, resulting in a signif-
icantly higher volume of trucks, which are bigger in size and thus more
polluting. DEC's permitting of these facilities, which until the passage
of the CLCPA was never required to count impact on disparate communities
as a criterion, has indisputably played a role in the significant levels
of air and noise pollution, amongst other externalities, suffered by
residents of these communities.

According to a program policy adopted by DEC's DAR adopted in December
2022 ("DAR-21 - The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act and
Air Permit Applications DEC Program Policy"), applicants for air
pollution control permits must now include information on any "reason-
ably foreseeable...indirect emissions", described as "emissions that are
a consequence of the activities of the reporting facility but may occur
at sources owned or controlled by another entity" in their applications.
There is nothing to guarantee, however, that DAR actually rejects a
permit based on the scope of such indirect emissions.

This bill makes meaningful strides towards a full accounting of our city
and state's last mile trucking problem by including in the CLCPA's
community air monitoring study an examination of the role that the state
itself has played in burdening disadvantaged communities via the issu-
ance of air pollution control permits.  Including DEC's permitting proc-
ess as an addendum to the community air monitoring study, which is
designed by statute to reduce air pollution in communities "with a high
cumulative exposure burden", is both logical and fair.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2024: S6299A - Referred to Environmental Conservation

2023: S6299 - Referred to Environmental Conservation

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

TBD

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.